Peace History Society
Background  PHS Conferences Peace and Change PHS News DeBenedetti Prize Bills Memorial Prize Membership Board and Officers   Other Resources on the Web Announcements of Conferences, etc. of Interest to Peace Historians PHS Photograph Archive 2003 Mt. Pleasant Conference	AHA Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. War and Peace: History and the Dynamics of  Human Conflict and Cooperation January 8-11, 2004 Washington, D.C. Peace Related Sessions, click here for information PHS Events at the AHA, click here for information

 

The Peace History Society was founded in 1964 to encourage, and coordinate national and international scholarly work to explore and articulate the conditions and causes of peace and war, and to communicate the findings of scholarly work to the public.

Members of PHS seek to broaden the understanding of and possibilities for world peace. The membership includes anthropologists, economists, historians, political scientists, sociologists, and other scholars and students of movements for peace and social justice, international and military affairs, transnational and cross-cultural analyses, and literary studies. Many members teach related course in colleges, universities, or secondary schools; others are students, peace activists, and the interested public. Drawn not only from North America but from around the world, members are concerned with making peace research relevant to the scholarly disciplines, policy makers, and to their own societies.

Background

The Peace History Society grew out of an ad hoc committee established at the December 1963 meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA). In the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and amidst the the dimly seen beginnings of the Vietnam war, a sizable group of historians gathered in the realization that little effort had been made in their field to study the causes of peace. (The original name was Conference on Peace Research in History. The name was changed in 1986 to the Council on Peace Research in history, then to the Peace History Society in 1994.) Subsequently, PHS became an affiliated society of the AHA and joined the Consortium on Peace Research, Education and Development (COPRED), the National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History, the International Peace Research Association, and the International Committee of Historical Science. The Peace History Society has also acquired Non-Governmental Organization status at the United Nations.

 

Over the years, PHS has organized peace research panels for AHA programs as well as conferences sponsored by the Organization of American Historians, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, and other professional gatherings. PHS has also distributed papers on special topics to members and interested libraries, compiled lists of relevant research in progress, and worked with publishers to reissue important works documenting international activism.

Peace History Conferences

The most recent Peace History Society conference took place April 25-27, 2003 at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, USA.  The organizers for the conference were Ian Lekus and Robbie Lieberman.  The theme of the conference was "Peace Work: The Labor of Peace Activism, Past, Present, and Future."  For copy of the conference program click here.

The Peace History Society has also sponsored a number of major conferences on its own or in collaboration with other organizations. Some of the most recent of these include "Politics of Peace Movements: From Nonviolence to Social Justice" (Western Washington University, 2000), "Peace and War Issues: Gender, Race, Identity, and Citizenship" (University of Texas at San Antonio, 1997), and "Peace and War Issues: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity" (Rutgers University, 1994). Select papers from these conferences appeared as special issues of Peace & Change. Additionally, PHS organized impressive panels for the Hague Appeal for Peace (1999) and in conjunction with the meeting of the International Congress of Historical Sciences in Oslo (2000). Working via the Peace History Commission (an international body that PHS organized), the Peace History Society has enabled scholars to appear on panels at meetings of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) in Valetta, Malta (1994), Brisbane, Australia (1996), and Durban, South Africa (1998).

The Peace History Society has consistently sought to maintain an ongoing dialogue with other academics who do not necessarily share the same methodologies and fields of interest. For example, PHS has held successful joint conferences with the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and the American Military Institute.

Peace & Change

 Since 1972, PHS has published its own journal, Peace & Change: A Journal of Peace Research, which members receive free of charge. Appearing quarterly, Peace & Change publishes scholarly and interpretive articles as well as book reviews on a wide variety of topics related to peace movements, conflict resolution, satyagraha and nonviolence, internationalism, race and gender issues affecting peacemaking, cross-cultural studies, economic development, the impact of imperialism on societies, and post-Cold War upheaval. Special issues have featured forums on the field of peace history, aspects of the Vietnam War, peace discourse, dilemmas of "development," Japanese American internment during the Second World War, and world federalism. Book reviews, review essays, and articles draw from an interdisciplinary array of themes, methodologies, and topics.

Since 1978, the journal has been cosponsored by the Consortium 

on Peace Research, Development and Education, headquartered at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030.

Peace & Change is published by Blackwell.  For further information about the journal and the services offered by Blackwell connect to their web site. 

PHS News

The organization's newsletter, PHS News, appears two to three times per year, carrying updates of interest to members, including organizational activities, minutes of Board meetings, sessions at international scholarly conferences, new publications, research announcements, peace research programs at colleges and universities, and Peace History Society elections.  Any information for the newsletter should be sent to E. Timothy Smith, Department of History, Barry University, 11300 N.E. Second Avenue, Miami Shores, FL 33161, USA.  To view recent copies of PHS News online click here.

DeBenedetti Prize In Peace History

Since 1987-88, PHS has been awarding the Charles DeBenedetti Prize every other year to the author or authors of an outstanding journal article (published in English) on peace history. Articles submitted may focus on the history of peace movements, the response of individuals to peace and war issues, the relationship between peace and other reform movements, gender issues in warfare and peacemaking, comparative analyses, and quantitative studies.  Those interested in the prize should submit four copies of a journal article published in 2001-2002 by October 1, 2003 to Kathleen Kennedy, chair of the DeBenedetti Prize Committee, at History Department, Western Washington University, 516 High St., Bellingham, WA 98225, USA.

 

Frances Early (right) presenting Susan Zeiger with the l995-l996 DeBenedetti Prize at the PHS Conference, Univ. of Texas at San Antonio

DeBenedetti Prize in Peace History 1999-2000: Laura Hein, "Savage Irony: The Imaginative Power of the 'Military Comfort Women' in the 1990s," Gender and History 11 (July 1999): 336-372. 1997-98: Robert Shaffer, "Cracks in the Consensus: Defending the Rights of Japanese Americans During World War II," Radical History Review 72 (Fall 1998): 84-120. 1995-96: Susan Zeiger, "She Didn't Raise Her Boy To Be a Slacker," Feminist Studies (Spring 1996) 1993-94: Allen Smith, "Mass Society and the Bomb: The Discourse of Pacifism in the 1950s," Peace and Change (Ocotber 1993)   1991-92: Sandi Cooper, "Pacifism in France, 1889-1914: International Peace as a Human Right," French Historical Studies (Fall 1991)   1989-90: Frances Early, "Feminism, Peace, and Civil Liberties: Women's Role in the Origins of the World War I Civil Liberties Movement," Women's Studies (1990)   1987-88: Larry Wittner, "Peace Movements and Foreign Policy: The Challenge to Diplomatic Historians," Diplomatic History (Fall 1987) and Dennis R. Gordon, "The Paralysis of Multilateral Peacekeeping: International Organizations and the Falklands/Malvinas War, Peace and Change (No. 1/2 1987)

Bills Memorial Prize

The Peace History Society will award the Scott Bills Memorial Prize bi-annually (in odd years) for an outstanding English-language work in the field of Peace History. The Prize will be awarded for an outstanding dissertation or an outstanding first book by a faculty member or independent scholar. Dissertations defended and books published during 2002-2005 are eligible for the first award. The Prize carries a cash award of $500. Please submit nominations and two copies of the dissertation or book to E. Timothy Smith, Department of History and Political Science, Barry University, Miami Shores, FL 33161.

PHS hopes to make the Bills Memorial Prize a self-perpetuating endowment.  If you would like to make a donation to this fund in memory of Scott Bills, send your contributions to Michael Foley, Department of History, College of Staten Island, City University of New York, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY  10214, USA.  Checks should be made payable to the PHS, but clearly indicate that it is for the Bills Memorial Prize fund.  For further information on the Bills Memorial Prize contact, Michael S. Foley.

Officers and Board Members

Executive Officers (2003)
	President: Wendy E. Chmielewski Swarthmore College Peace Collection, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, PA  19081, USA.
	Vice President: Mitchell K. Hall Department of History, Central Michigan University Mt. Pleasant, MI  48859, USA.
	Secretary: Joyce Blackwell-Johnson Department of History and Politics, Meredith College, 3800 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, NC 27607, USA.
	Treasurer: Michael S. Foley College of Staten Island - City University of New York, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY  10314, USA.

Membership

Membership is open to all persons interested in the work of the Peace History Society. Annual dues are currently $40 per year, (or a special rate of $25 for students, retirees, and people unemployed). In addition to receiving regular issues of Peace & Change and the PHS newsletter, members are encouraged to organize PHS-sponsored sessions at an array of conferences as well as nominating and electing colleagues to the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee.

Membership forms and dues should be directed to: Michael S. Foley, Assistant Professor of History, College of Staten Island - City University of New York, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10314, USA; Phone, 718-982-2870.  For institutional subscribers, please contact Malcolm Crystal, Journals Editor, Blackwell Publishers, 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148; Phone, 781-388-0438.  All other membership queries or questions should be directed to: Joyce Blackwell-Johnson, Department of History and Politics, Meredith College, 3800 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, NC 27607, USA; Phone: 919-760-2289.

Click here for membership information and a copy of the membership form.

If you would like to purchase a membership online, click here.

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This page was last updated on 24 October 2003.

Contact Website Editor with comments: Christy J. Snider, Department of History, Berry College, Mt. Berry, GA  30149, USA.

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